New Directions

Synthetic Babies From New Jersey

I still remember the second book I ever borrowed from a public library. I was probably eight years old and I had discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs, known primarily for his Tarzan books. The book I borrowed was entitled Synthetic Men of Mars – not one of his best books. Even though I was only eight I knew it wasn’t that great, but there was an image I formed in my mind from that book that I have never forgotten. The book tells of these sort of bubbling, brewing vats on Mars where body parts and Martian people are created. The men of Mars thus created were, predictably, not nice people.

Yesterday, President Obama signed an executive order rescinding the Bush prohibition on stem cell research and, I guess this is how my mind works: I was reminded of Burroughs’ now seemingly prescient book. I suppose a lot of people will be thinking that this is our first slippery step down that slippery slope that will ultimately lead to a scientific endeavor that will create something like those bubbling vats on Mars, except that our vats will be producing baby parts. Yet, the objection from the “conservative” right to stem cell research is not the creation of baby body parts, it is the destruction of human embryos.

Human fertility clinics have a plethora of fertilized eggs or human embryos. That is just the normal result of the whole process of trying to provide children to couples who have not been able to conceive the natural way, for one reason or another. Fertilizing an egg is a iffy process; it doesn’t always work, so fertility clinics harvest lots of eggs from the potential mother and fertilize all of them with the donor sperm, in the hope that at least one of them will be viable. It often happens that many are viable and the potential mother is left with the classical “Octomom’s Dilemma”: do you use all the remaining eggs or do you destroy them? The Octomom chose to have all of them implanted in the belief that these were all her children. On the other hand, the vast majority of parents opt for destruction of their unused fertilized eggs. It is these unwanted, fertilized eggs that are a good source of stem cells, cells that can be encouraged to grow and become virtually anything the body needs: a liver, an eye, nerve tissue, whatever you need.

The right wingers, like George Bush, apparently recoil at the taking of stem cells from the embryos because that process, of course, destroys the embryos. On the other hand, I haven’t heard much talk about the hard right wing objection to the outright destruction of the embryos when they are not wanted. I suppose that if they are opposed to this too then they must agree with the Octomom and desire that all of these embryos be implanted in the mother and the babies all be born. Apparently, these people would like to see millions of Octomoms in the U.S. Or are they just against the whole fertility thing in general? I don’t really know. What would George Bush say?

The sanctity of human life is a thorny issue. Who can choose whether another person should live or die? Who can choose whether an embryo should be destroyed or harvested? What about transplanting organs from donors, i.e. people who have died? Is that moral? Isn’t that sort of Frankensteinish? How many thousands of Americans are living today with someone else’s heart or lungs or eyes or skin? How many people’s lives have been saved by receiving another person’s blood? If you receive someone else’s stem cells and they grow into a new heart or spinal cord or liver are you still the same person you used to be or are you now a hybrid of some sort? The DNA in your donor cells is not yours. It never will be. Ask any donor heart recipient. They’ll tell you that they never forget it is someone else’s heart that is beating in their chest and the people who receive stem cell transplants will probably feel the same.

Should we let an embryo die and thus condemn a sick patient also to death? Is this the will of God? Is it the will of God when someone is critically injured in an accident? And if it is, then should we help them or maybe let them die because it is God’s will? Does the extreme right wing know the mind of God? Does George Bush? Does President Obama? Does the Pope, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or Joel and Victoria Osteen?

The simple fact is this: there is no consensus. Well meaning people can be on opposite sides of this issue, but regardless of which side they take they must be logically consistent. You can’t condemn the Octomom and at the same time approve of fertility clinics. You can’t say you have regard for the sanctity of life and then create a business that deliberately creates embryos only for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. You can’t tell others to accept the will of God and then go get a heart transplant for yourself.

President Obama’s action to rescind the Bush prohibition on stem cell research marks the beginning of a new national debate. Where do we draw a line between the ethical and the unethical, the beautiful and the obscene, the right to live and the right to die? Can we ever have consensus and, if so, does the consensus have the right to overrule the individual conscience? Synthetic babies from New Jersey is probably not such a good idea, but what about using stem cells to repair a spinal injury so that a nine year old paraplegic can walk again? It’s time for a rational, national debate. The question I have is this: is that possible?

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[…] This chap put an intriguing blog post on Synthetic Babies From New Jersey Rich McSheehys WeblogHere’s a quick excerptI suppose that if they are opposed to this too then they must agree with the Octomom and desire that all of these embryos be implanted in the mother and the babies all be born. Apparently, these people would like to see millions of … […]

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